The Iron Fist of The Order
by beb
Summary: Someone or something is trying to take over the Ghost Zone and some of Danny's worst enemies have turned to him for help. Also, introducing, The Society for the Ethical Treatment of Ectoplasmic Manifestations - PET'EM!
1. Chapter 1

Danny was having "That Dream" again. He was at a beach when Paulina, the prettiest girl in Casper High School walked by and stopped. "Hi, Danny," she lisped in her intriguing, faint accent. "Could you rub some sun tan lotion on my back? I don't want to get ...burned." She handed a bottle to him and without asking lay down on his blanket beside him. He looked at her all lithe and supple, skin a delicious honey brown and shuddered. He spread some of the sunblock on his palms and was bending over her when:

"I am the Box Ghost: Beware! - - I mean, help!" a squeaky, high pitched voice screamed in his ear.

Danny shot up in bed. Looked around his room, he found, hovering in a corner, the faint, glowing form of The Box Ghost, a chubby entity in bib overalls. Danny's breath turned frosty - his ghost sense warning him of ectroplasmic trouble.

In what he hoped was a cool, James Bond-like motion Danny rolled from his bed onto the floor. And found himself tangled up in bedclothes unable to move. Going "Ghost" Danny slipped through the knot of sheets and confronted the Box Ghost who continued to hover nervously in the corner.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded

"I am the Box Ghost," he answered. "Beware - I mean - help me!"

"Help You?" Danny echoed, confused.

"Please?"

"You're not here to haunt me? Or make demanded about all things square and even-sided?"

"Maybe - I mean, No!" the Box ghost squeaked. "I need help and you're the only one I could think of."

"You're pulling my leg, right?"

"No. I am the Box Ghost, not the leg-pulling ghost. I need you're help. Beware!" The last seemed to slip out because he immediately said, "sorry."

"Why would you think I would help a ghost like you?"

"You're the only one who's ever been nice to me."

"I've never been nice to you. I chase you down and suck you into the Fenton Thermo any time you show your face around here."

"But you never beat me up doing that."

"That's you're idea of kindness?"

"It's not easy being The Box Ghost - Beware! Sorry."

"Look, Box Ghost..."

"Clarence."

"Clarence?"

"My name is Clarence. Box Ghost is what I do."

"You have a name?" Danny wondered.

"Yes. Beware!"

"With a name like Clarence I can see why you'd want people to call you The Box Ghost."

"Please, you've got to help me," The Box Ghost, or Clarence, whispered.

"With what?"

"Terrible things are happening in the Ghost Zone. Simple, honest Box Ghosts are no longer safe. We need a champion. Someone who will stand up to the evil.

"Terrible things are always happening in the Ghost Zone. Besides, even if I were to agree to help you, it's the middle of the night - (actually the sun was beginning to shine in Danny's window) - and I've got school in the morning. There's no way I can help you tonight. So just go away before I have to get rough!"

"Yes, sir," the Box Ghost answered, hanging its head before fading away.

Danny tried to extend his ghost senses to see if the Box Ghost had really gone away. As usual his ghost senses didn't work that way.

He changed back into his mortal form, untangled the sheets and crawled back into bed. With a mighty effort he willed himself to recapture The Dream where he had been interrupted but found himself returning to the oddity of a ghost appealing to its greatest nemesis for help. Or at least "a" nemesis Just as he was finally drifting off to sleep the alarm clock sounded and it was time to start another day.

At school he mentioned his strange visitation to Sam and Tucker during their lunch hour. Tucker laughed that the menace Clarence the Box Ghost mentioned was a new bully in the Ghost Zone administering Atomic Super-Wedgies. Sam took the matter more seriously and argued that Danny had a duty to help ghosts who came to him for help. Danny fought to keep from rolling his eyes. Sam had been listening to his sister later about the need to treat ghosts humanely and as equals. They wanted to form a society to help ghosts. Danny, who usually found himself fighting for his life against ghosts strongly disagreed. He dubbed their society "People for the Ethical Treatment of Ectoplasmic Manifestions", or Pet'em. Jazz, oblivious to the joke name, was already planning their first meeting.

"You could have at least listened to his problem," Sam said.

"He's the Box Ghost; he's afraid of his own shadow," Danny had retorted.

"What if you need help some day?"

Danny shook his head. "They'd all just gang up on me. No one would help."

"Because you've never helped them."

Danny just sighed and concentrated on the cooked spinach on his plate.

That night Danny had trouble getting to sleep. He kept expecting the Box Ghost to ooze back into his room and plead for help again. But sleep he did finally, until a soft, sensuous voice whispered his name into his ear. For a moment he thought he was Paulina and he was in The Dream again. Only dream voices in his ear don't send puffs of cold cigarette butts and stale beer with them. He rolled over to see the glowing green eyes of Ember McLain laying in bed next to him.

With a startled shout Danny leaped from his bed.

Only to find himself stark naked.

With another squark, he snatched a pillow from the bed to cover himself and backed towards the door.

"Is that anyway to greet an old friend."

"We were never friends!"

"I could hum a little song about friendship and you could be." the lady ghost suggested.

"Just give me back my pajamas."

With a laugh, Ember caused his clothes to materialize over his head.

With a angry mutter, Danny grabbed his clothes, turned around and started to put them on. He was interrupted by a wolf-whistle from the ghost in his bed.

Danny started to turn around and yell at her, then remembered he'd already dropped his pillow. He rushed pulling his pants on before turning around, only to find Ember no longer in his bed, or anywhere in his room. He pulled his pajama top on before going ghost and setting off to find the spectral musician.

She was downstairs in the living room, sitting on the lounge with the big screen TV on, set to MTV. "Don't they ever show music videos anymore?" she asked as Danny came into the room.

Danny grabbed the remote out of her hand and turned the TV off. "Keep it down," he whispered. "You don't want to wake my mom and dad."

"The intrepid ghost fighters," Ember said sarcastically.

"Don't think they can't kick your butt!" Danny warned. "And what are you doing here, anyway?"

"I just came for a chat."

"You never come to chat. What's this really all about."

Ember leaned back on the lounge, swung her guitar around and strummed a soft chord.

Danny snatched the guitar out of her hand. "No singing!" he ordered. Ember McLain was a sort of modern-day Siren. She could enchant anyone with her singing, and suck energy from mortals by getting them to say her name.

"Keep it down," Ember chided, "You'll wake your parents!"

Danny could hear a grinding noise then realized it was his teeth. He so wanted to sock her in the face but he'd been brought up to never strike a lady, and couldn't.

"I came to ask for your help?" the ghost said with a sigh. "You know it's really hard for me to talk without my guitar."

"You have a strange way of asking for help, showing up in my bed, stealing my pajamas." Danny growled.

"Hey, that's just my nature. I'm not very good about asking people for stuff." she said petulantly.

"This is about the Box Ghost."

"Look, kiddo, stuff's happening in the Ghost Zone. Bad Stuff. I try to keep clear of stuff like this but they're not letting me. Clarence suggested we turn to you. He figured a goody-two shoes like you would feel compelled to help. As if..."

"So why are you here if you don't think I'll help?"

"You have a cute butt. I figure if you have to ask someone for help if may as well be someone with a cute butt."

"My butt isn't cute."

"You haven't seen it the way I have," Ember leered.

Danny colored, then shouted, "Get Out!"

"Tut tut, mind the parents."

His fist suddenly began glowing with concentrated ectoplasm. "Get! Out! or so help me..."

"Ooo, I love a man who's domineering," Ember cooed, then sitting up and wiping the leer off her face, said "Look, meat-puppet, Someone is trying to organize the Ghost Zone into one giant army. As much as I'd like to take over the mortal realm, I'm not interested in doing it as someone's cannon fodder. The bigger ghosts like Technus and Skulker, have already fallen in with this plan. Others, like Clarence, Klemper, Johnny 13 and me - we're not interested. But we're not being given a choice."

"So who's doing this organizing? Fright Knight? Pariah Dark?"

"Fright Knight's disappeared and Pariah Dark's still I his coffin, as as any of us know. Who ever's behind this is someone none of us know. "

"And you want me to come in and kick some butt? Without knowing whose butt or where it's planted?"

"Yeah, basically. I mean, we'll help as much as we can."

"When it's within your nature..."

"OK, I'm sorry I stole your pajamas," Ember said. "I'm weak that way. I can't resist a good prank and, man, did I have you going."

"Go away. Tell Clarence, no deal. I'm tired of having ghosts invade my house, scaring me in the middle of the night. If you've got a problem, deal with it." Danny turned and phased through the ceiling into his bedroom. He expected Ember to follow him and continue pleading but she didn't. After several minutes Danny changed back to Danny Fenton and after making sure his pajamas were on securely, crawled back into bed and went to sleep.

A very material hand shaking his shoulder woke him in the morning. His sister, Jazz was bending over. She was wearing a bath robe, her hair was tangled and mussed and a zit was on her left cheek, glowing red like a laser pointer.

"Wake up, Danny! Mom's on the warpath. you're late for school!" Jazz had home room for her first class so she didn't have to get up as early.

Danny sat up on the edge of his bed, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "Say, Jazz," he asked as she started to leave, "does your society ever get ghosts looking for help?"

"Society?"

"You know, 'People for the Ethical Treatment of Ectoplasmic Manifestations'?"

"Well, no, but any time now I think ghosts will start coming around. I'm starting a group encounter session. You should come. We can work out some of your deep-seated feeling about ghosts."

"I am a ghost! How can I have deep-seated feeling about me?"

"Just come."

"So, no late night visitors asking for help?"

"No. Why?"

"Never mind," Danny answered. He tried not to involve his sister in his ghost fighting activities since her help was often counter-productive. "Oh, by the way," he added as Jazz once more turned towards his door. "You've got something right about here." He touched his left cheek.

Jazz screwed up her eyes, trying to see on her cheek where he pointed, then put up her hand and felt. "Oh, Good Lord!" she cried, "it's a crater! I'll have to spackle. Don't even think about using the bathroom this morning." She rushed away.

* * *

><p>I'm trying an experiment with this story, using shorter chapters. 2500 to 3500 words instead of my usual 6000-8000 words. Let me know if you find this easier to read. - beb<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

At school that day Danny decided not to mention the part about Ember McLain being in his bed to Sam and Tucker, though he did mention her visitation. Sam joked that it sounded like "A Christmas Carol."

"Oh, great," Danny snarled, "I've got Death to look forward to?"

It wasn't death who knocked on his door that night, just the ghost of mystery meat and tuna surprise. (The surprise being it wasn't really tuna.) The Lunch Lady was prodding his shoulder as he lay slumped over his homework, drooling softly on Geography.

"You're not going to make me eat meat loaf, are you?" Danny asked warily.

"Oh, dear lord, no," chuckled the elderly looking ghost wearing a large apron, rubber gloves and a net over her bun of silver hair. "I just come to ask you to help Clarence and us with a little problem in the Ghost Zone." She looked at Danny slouched over at his desk. Danny was surprised to see it was after 2 AM since the last thing he could remember was sitting down after supper around 8 PM. "You know, good posture now will do you a world of good when you get to be as old as me," the lunch lady commented. "Sit up straight when your elders are talking to you!"

"You and Clarence and Ember...I'm surprise you didn't send in Klemper first."

"Oh, well, now you know how Klemper is about finding friends. He was the first to join The Order. He goes around now talking about all the friends he has in The Order, but we never see him with anybody. But he has gotten into the habit of ordering us around and taking anything he wants from us. He a right little pig about it."

"That's it? The Order is just one ghost who's getting - what's the word - uppity?"

"It's more than that, young man. Ghost who have crossed Klemper have...disappeared!"

"Like who?"

"Johnny 13."

"His girlfriend probably banished him to another dimension for lookign at another girl, er ghost."

"Kitty is beside herself with worry. No, someone else has taken Johnny 13 and a dozen ghosts and more."

"And you don't know where any of them are? How am I supposed to help? What do you expect me to do?"

"Don't take that attitude with me, you snot-nosed little punk!" The lunch lady suddenly roared. "I've quite enough of your lollygagging." She had as suddenly inflated to twice her normal size as she yelled at Danny, then as abruptly shrank back to her normal size. "I suppose you would do whatever it is you usually do when one of us ghost tries to take over the moral realm," she finished calmly.

"Normally I punch them in the snort. How am I supposed to do that when I don't even know where they are?"

"You'll think of something."

"Why not have Ember just charm The Order, or whoever they are, into leaving you alone."

"Oh, now, you know very well that Ember's powers don't work on ghost, only mortals like yourself."

"I didn't know that."

"Well, now you do."

Danny turned away and with a corner of his T-shirt tried to dry off the corner of his geography book. "How are all you people getting in here?" he asked. "I thought I had the Ghost Portal completely locked down."

"Your dog has been scratching a hole through for us. He's really a nice pet."

"I don't have a dog," Danny protested.

"He seems to think so," and the lunch lady pointed to something on Danny's bed.

He turned to find a small puppy sleeping up by the pillows. It looked like a bulldog with short legs and a massive chest. Only it wasn't really a dog, it was a ghost. Cujo, the dog that had destroyed Valerie Gray's father's security business. Danny swallowed nervously,. The minute that puppy woke up it was going to turn into an eight foot tall monster that could destroy just about anything, including his home.

"Why did you bring Cujo with you?" Danny whispered.

"I didn't bring him here, he brought me here. He's a very smart dog, very concerned about this problem with The Order. He's the one who suggested we should come to you for help.

"He did? He's just a dog."

"He heard us talking about what we should do and the next thing we knew he had seized poor Clarence and dragged him off to see you. He knows that you can help us, that you will help us."

"I'm surprised Wulf hasn't showed up..."

"He's scheduled for tomorrow."

"Oh, great. You realize that he doesn't speak English."

"That's why he didn't want to go earlier."

Danny shook his head, trying to will this whole nightmare away. He got out of his chair and walked over to his window and looked out. There's wasn't much of a view, just their backyard, still, it was home.

"I suppose you'll keep coming night after night until I give in?" he asked.

"Yes, but we don't think there's much time left. There's some kind of excitement in the air, like something's going to happen soon."

"Look, I've got a Geography quiz in the morning I've got to study for..."

"I think it's a little late for that," the lunch lady said pointedly.

"The weekend's coming up. I'll have time to look into this then, but what do I know about the Ghost Zone?"

"I'm sure you'll do fine."

"And once I find this Order, then what?"

"I'm sure you'll know what to do. You always seem to."

"OK, Friday night. Just let me get some sleep between now and then.

* * *

><p>After looking at the clock for like the hundredth time Danny decided it was late enough. His parents were, incomprehensibly, day people, who rarely stay up past Ten O'Clock, which was what the clock had just clicked to. It ought to be safe now to sneak down into the basement lab and hop through the Ghost Portal. He just didn't want to have to explain why he was carrying a large bag of doggie biscuits. He also had a dog whistle and a squeaky toy in his pocket. If Cujo, the ghost dog, had been bringing people to see him, there was a good chance that he would be waiting for him on the other side. Dogs were hard enough to control when they were normal sized, one that stood eight feet tall... was going to be a challenge.<p>

He passed his sister's room and was surprised to hear her talking on her cell phone. "...you'll just have to trust him," she was saying. "He's really very reliable."

Someone said something in reply and she laughted, "OK, maybe he's not reliable that way but he has a good head on his shoulder. He'll do the right thing when the time comes. Trust me."

Danny wondered who she was talking to, but only to the extent that his sister rarely talked to anyone on the phone. He was passing the door when she said quite distinctly and sharply, "Put the guitar down!"

Danny paused in his tracks. Did Jazz have someone in her room? Jazz never had people in her room, least of all late at night. And who did she know that played guitar. Of course Danny didn't know who played guitar at school either, so he shrugged his shoulders and continued on to the basement. As he paused in the lab before the steel shuttered Ghost Portal he found himself wondering why she had been insistent that they "put the guitar down?" Probably didn't want to awake their parents he concluded, and put it out of his mind. He slapped the bio-metric Portal lock and when it opened a cracked changed into Danny Phantom and sped through the portal. Everything twisted in strange, non-linear ways and when things settled he was in the endless spaces of the Ghost Zone.

* * *

><p>There was no one waiting for him, which was odd, since they had insisted him come, and he said he would. Danny, like most 14 year old boys wasn't very good about keeping promises but tended to insist that people keep their end of promises.<p>

He was looking towards his left when he was struck from behind and forced to the ground. A huge, wet tongue slobbered all over his face. Danny struggled to get free before remembering the proper way to go about this. He found the dog whistle around his neck and gave it a short, silent blast. "Bad boy, bad boy," he commanded. "Down! Now! Down!" and abruptly the heavy weight laying across him was gone, though hot, fetid breathes puffed across his face. Sitting at him feet, tongue lolling in a happy feet was the biggest ghost dog ever.

Danny got to his feet and wiped as much of the drool off his face as he could. Reaching up he patted the dog as high on the shoulder as he could. At eight feet tall, it was a long stretch to the dog's shoulder. "Good boy, Cujo. Good boy," Danny complimented. The book he had read on dog handling was coming back to him. He reached into the pouch of dog biscuits and pulled out a couple and tossed them at the ghost dog. He had gotten the largest doggie treats the store had to offer but compared to Cujo's massive head they looked like crumbs. But in an instant Cujo had turned into a puppy, devoured the biscuits and stood next to Danny, its tail wagging a mile a minute. Danny showed him the doggie toy, squeaked it a couple times and tossed it as far as he could. "Fetch," he ordered, and the puppy Cujo took off after it, running up through the air as if he were running on solid land.

Cujo was back in a moment and Danny patted its head, which as a puppy was a lot easier to do, and feed him another biscuit.

"Ok, Cujo, take me to Clarence and the others," Danny ordered. Cujo barked happily and ran off. Danny launched himself into the air and sped after him.

The ghost dog lead him through the realm of floating doors to the realm of floating islands then down, as much as a zone which had no up or down could have a 'down,' into a swampy riverbed. Cujo slowed up here, trotting alongside the creek there.

The riverbed looked strange to Danny. The sides of the river rose up abruptly and the trees growing on it were growing perpendicular to the ground, which meant they were sort of horizontal to Danny's perspective by the creek.

They passed several tributaries feeding into the creek, each with its own riverbed, each with its own gravity. It's reminded Danny of that Escher print of the room full of staircases, each going its own way.

Finally they came to a small widening of the riverbed. A fold in the riverbed bank forms a bit of an overhand which had been turned into a small camp. While several tents were pitched there, the camp for the moment looked empty. Danny was beginning to wonder what was going on when...

"Oh, it's you," a woman accused.

Danny spun around and found himself facing a young, emaciated woman ghost with short, spiky hair and black rimmed eyes.

"Kitty," he said warily. Kitty had once tried to take over his sister's body so she could live in the mortal world. She was Johnny 13's girlfriend. Like all the other ghosts who had called for his help, she wasn't a friend.

"It's all your fault," she said.

"I just got here!" Danny protested.

"All I wanted was a body so I could live in the Mortal World."

"You were trying to take over my sister's body!"

"She wasn't using it for anything."

"She was living in it!"

"That's still no reason to have destroyed Johnny 13." the ghost girl declared.

"I never destroyed Johnny 13. After I captured him I sent him back to the Ghost Zone. I don't destroy ghosts."

"But if you had let us live in the mortal world he wouldn't have been taken by The order and he and I could have been happy together!"

"Ghosts don't belong in the moral world!"

"Who says so, Danny," another voice asked. Turning around he say a group of ghosts flying into the little clearing. Riding on Wulf's broad back was his sister, Jazz.

* * *

><p>Apparently all this time I was using three asterisks to separate scenes and it turns out that FanFic has been deleting. I have no idea why they would do that. My daughter has shown me how to instead lines.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

"Ghosts don't belong in the moral world!" Danny insisted

"Who says so?" another voice asked. Turning around he say a group of ghosts flying out of the Specter Speeder. At the head of them was his sister, Jazz. "Ghosts have a right to live a full and productive life like anyone else," she said.

"Haunting people?"

"It's a small price to pay..."

"Oh, come on, Jazz! Ghosts only come into our world because they want something. She -" he pointed to Kitty, "-wanted your body!"

"I'm sure it was all just a misunderstanding."

Danny was about to say something, then closed his mouth. He realized that nothing he said was going to get through to his sister at the moment. She was in one of her "project" moods and nothing would deflect her from her goal. He looked at the other ghosts who had settled down around her. There was Wulf, the Lunch Lady, a surprisingly cowed looking Youngblood, Ember McLain who, when she saw him looking at her, winked and blew him a kiss. There were a couple other ghosts he wasn't too familiar with. One was a ghost who looked a lot like Clarence, the Box ghost except he was even fatter looking. This was Rollo, the ghost of all things round and bouncy. He was a cheerful fellow who's' only interest seemed to be in fighting with Clarence over the superiority of balls versus boxes. Another was a slender ghost in immaculately tailored 19th century evening clothes. He called himself Lord Faultless Roy and seemed only to sniff in disdain at other people's fashion.

"What are you doing with all these ghosts?" he asked his sister, not caring to be surrounded by so many ghosts he's fought with at one time or another.

"Danny, I want you to meet the founding members of People For the Ethic Treatment of Ectoplasmic Manifestations."

"Pet'em?" Danny was confused because he had suggested the idea as a joke. Who knew Jazz would take him up on the idea. "You do realize that the only "people" here are you and me, The rest are, if you'll forgive me, ectoplasmic manifestations."

"We shouldn't discriminate against people because of their origins," Jazz reproved.

"Yeah, ghosts are people, too," Ember said, walking close to Danny and drawing a sensuous finger down along the side of his face. He batted the finger away, causing her to smirk. "OK, maybe we're not 'people' people but we have a right to live our own lives, right?"

Danny was once again at a lose for words. He noticed a guitar slung over the back of Ember McLain. "Were you having a group encounter meeting in my sister's room a little while ago?"

"Yah. You should have been there. We could have discussed your fear of appearing naked in public." Ember purred.

"You mean your compulsion to steal people's clothes?" Well, that explained the 'put the guitar down' comment he'd heard. Jazz may get involved in foolish "projects" but she was no fool, she knew of Ember's power to hypnotize mortals with her guitar.

"Oh, lighten up! I even dressed for you. Do you like it?"

She was wearing a black corset with a little jacket over it, black hot pants, purple fishnet nylons and thigh high pirate boots. Her breasts bulged over the top of her corset like a pair of green apples. "Who'd you steal it from?" he asked belligerently to hide how hot she looked just then.

Ember didn't answer. She floated into the air, crossing her legs as if she were sitting on the ground and unslung her guitar. She picked at the strings, playing a sad sounding melody. "I'm glad you're here," she said after a moment. "There were some who thought you'd help you but I knew you would. You're than kind of guy." She looked up and stared into Danny's eyes. "If you weren't just a kid I'd have a real yen for you."

Ember's eyes were large and soulful. They seemed to consume Danny. Until a sharp yank on his ear pulled his head around and he found himself looking at his sister.

"Ember," she said, talking past Danny," what did I say about hypnotizing people?"

"Something about laying off your family?" the ghost rocker replied uncertainly.

"Everybody! You won't make friends if you keep hypnotizing people into doing things for you! But, yes, especially, don't toy around with my brother."

"I wasn't toying. Are you saying we ghosts are free to date anyone we want as long as it's not your brother?" Ember was snarling by the time she finished.

"He's just a kid. There's laws against that." Jazz answered, trying to be reasonable.

"Earth laws!" Ember retorted. "But we're not on Earth!" She casually pointed the neck of her guitar at Jazz.

Jazz reached around her back and brought out a small round, silver cylinder. "Don't make me have to use this."

Ember looked at the Fenton Thermos, then at Jazz. There was a long pause as she thought. Then she laughed. "God, you people have no sense of humor. I was just having a little bit of fun with you, that's all. No harm. No foul." She slung the guitar over her shoulder. "See?" she said holding out her empty hands.

"Perhaps we should tell young Daniel about our problem," the Lunch Lady interrupted. "It was so good of him to come to us. We should respect that kindness." She bent her head looked at Ember as if she were looking over the top of a pair of glasses. Ember was incapable of feeling guilt about anything but she recognized that maybe she'd gone too far.

"Ahem, yes," Lord Faultless Roy cleared his throat. "It all started a while back. It first it didn't seem like anything. Some ghosts started flyng around in shiny black costumes and acting like they were better than the rest of us. The attitude is common enough in the Ghost Zone, only these were ghosts who had never done anything before to distinguish themselves. The thing is that we began to notice that ghost to heckled or picked on these member of what they called "The Order" tended to get beat up or even occasionally go missing."

"Yeah, you shouldn't have made fun of their stupid outfits," Ember chuckled.

"I ran into a door that I expected to be open!" Lord Faultless Roy huffed, pulling his morning jacket down and smoothing it nervously against his front. "I was not set upon by ruffians!"

"That would make you the only one here who wasn't. At least I left my attackers with more black eyes than I'd received." the rocker laughed somewhat hollowly.

"They took Johnny," Kitty burst into tears. "You've got to bring him back. I can't live without him."

"They're insisting that we all join their order," the Lunch Lady said. "Someone of us are kind of solitary folk. We like to be alone and to be left alone. But the Order won't let us."

"You want me to go up against an army of people that have been beating you up?"

"Why not, you do pretty good kicking the snot out of us all,"" Youngblood grumbled. He was dressed at the moment in camouflage pants and shirt, with a bandana tied around his forehead and shoe polish stripped under his eyes and along his cheeks.

"Maybe one on one, but this is an army. What am I supposed to do?" Danny asked.

"Bring back my Johnny," Kitty answered.

"OK, I'll look for Johnny 13. And if I run into this The Order I'll look it over and see what can be done. No promises beyond that, OK?"

He turned to his sister, "so, what brings you here?"

"I thought I could gain some insights into the issues of my group if I had a better sense of how they live and their day-to-day activities," Jazz explained.

"And nothing to do with their missing friends?"

"Well, that's one of their big issues, Danny. Of course I have to look into that, too."

"And they didn't tell you I'd be here waiting for them?"

"They did seem to be in a hurry to get back and the session lasted longer than we'd planned. Someone -" Jazz's eyes flitted over to the Lunch Lady, "- can't get it into their head that having the occasional salad is not a rebuke of meat. But we're working on that, aren't we?"

"Right. OK, let's get this thing rolling. I'd like to get back in time to play Tucker a few rounds of Zombiecrunch. So, where's this The Order?"

"We don't know," said Ember. She was sitting cross-legged in the air, strumming her guitar, which had somehow turned from an electric model into an acoustic one. She was plucking strings one by one in a sad progression.

"How am I supposed to find Johnny 13 if you don't know where he is?"

"Clar-ence." Wulf growled. He was a hulking werewolf looking ghost with large soulful eyes and a snout of large gleaming teeth. His hands ended in claws that could rip holes in the space-time continuum, allowing him to escape into other dimensions. Unfortunately he only spoke Esperanto, on Earth an obscure, artificial that only Tucker, among Danny's friends, knew.

"What about Clarence?" Danny asked. "Where is he?" Looking around he realized that Clarence, The Box Ghost was not part of the group.

"He's disappeared, Dipwad," Ember sneered.

"But I just talked to him the other day!"

"More like a week ago, idiot." She plucked one string and ran her fingers up and down the neck causing the note to undulate in pitch.

"Now, Ember, we've talked about your habit of insulting people," Jazz interrupted.

"Oh, shut up, you stupid T-" Ember found herself choking on a mouthful of mystery meat. "You do need to be more polite, young lady," the lunch lady admonished.

"Clarence is gone, too? How did this happen?"

"After you turned him down," Kitty spoke up, "he became very depressed. I recall hearing him say something like 'if you can't beat 'em...'

"So you think he joined The Order?" Danny asked.

Kitty just glared as if to say, 'what do you think?'

"So I've got two people to rescue and no idea how to find them. I could search the Ghost Zone for the rest of my life and not find them..."

Suddenly Jazz had her arm around his shoulder and was pulling him away from the group.

"I think there's way too much negativity coming from you, Danny," she was saying. "You need to turn that frown upsidedown and think about how you can do this and not about how hard it might be."

Danny shook her arm off and snapped, "Don't give me that stupid Pop Psych stuff, Jazz. Maybe it'll work on them but not me."

"Oh, come on, Danny" she snapped right back. "These people are depending on you to do something and all you can do is complain that it might be hard. You're blinding yourself with your own negativity. This isn't mumbo-jumbo, Danny, is hard, plain fact."

"What makes you think there's any way in heck I can do this?"

"Someone obviously does." She nodded towards the demon dog that was sniffing around the Spector Speeder.

"Cujo? He's a dog."

"But he brought he here. He obviously thinks you can do this."

"No offense to the big guy, but dogs aren't known for their strategic thinking."

"Cujo's not some ordinary dog."

"No, he's an eight foot tall mastiff ghost who think's he's a puppy."

"Dogs are a lot smarter than we give them credit for."

"Jazz, you give them a doggie treat and they're friends for live."

"Danny, you have to think positively..."

"Oh, please," Danny turned to walk back to the group of ghosts.

"Aren't dogs good trackers? Maybe he can find Johnny 13 and the Box Ghost for you?"

"He's not a bloodhound, Jazz."

"But aren't all dogs able to follow a scent?"

He was about to tell her than greyhounds didn't, a useless fact he's picked up from watching TV, when he finally realized what she was saying. Assuming that Cujo could follow a scent, it was his best chance of finding The Order and putting an end to their nonsense. Without bothering to thank his sister for the idea, he went back to the group and asked if anyone had an article of clothing with either Johnny 13's or the Box Ghost's scent on it.

"I've got this necklace Johnny gave me," Kitty said, lifting one of several necklaces from around her head.

"That might smell more of you than Johnny by now," Danny said. "Anyone else?"

Wulf ran off to the overhang where the tents were and ran into one of the smaller ones and came back a moment later with a blanket clutched in his mouth. He dropped it at Danny's feet and groaned "Clar-ence."

Danny had to wonder just how much English the man-wolf ghost understood. He looked at the lunch lady, whom he assumed, because of her greater age to be a more responsible entity, "Is this the Box Ghost's blanket?"

"I believe it is," she told him.

"Ok. Cujo!" he called. "Smell the blanket. Find! Find the Box Ghost," and held the fabric up for the dog to whiff.

The dog sniffed the blanket several times, then ran up to the tent Wulf have brought the blanket from.

"Good boy," Danny encouraged. "Keep going."

Cujo circled the camp a couple of time before heading off down river at a lope. Danny took to the air to keep up with him.

The trail took a meandering course, sometimes sticking close to the creek and other times wandering far up the side of the river banks. At one point Danny looked straight up to find the creek flowing placidly overhead. Cujo kept forging ahead and soon he was back to walking beside the creek.

Eventually Cujo climbed out of the river bed entirely and took off across the endless skies of the Ghost Zone. He went past the realm of floating islands, then the realm of floating doors before coming to a place where rainbows seem to hover in the skies. Cujo jumped on one and suddenly was sliding down it towards some distant and invisible end. Danny hurried and caught up. Touching the rainbow brought its gravity to him and he was sliding after the giant ghost dog towards what he hoped was more than just a pot of gold.

What had seemed like bright and cheerful rays in the sky when he had jumped on the rainbow was turning dark and sinister. He couldn't put his finger on what made it seem to menacing; it just was.

After a time Danny could see ground spread out below him and rushing up at a dizzying rate. He gave a toot on the dog whistle then jumped into the air, stopping his descent well above the ground. Cujo had jumped, too, when he had heard the dog whistle and was waiting for fresh orders. Danny ruffed up the fur behind his ears, called him a good boy and feed him a couple doggy treats. Cujo tried to wash his face.

They descended the rest of the way to the end of the rainbow slowly. Danny spotted a patch of woods to one side and maneuvered there. Just as he was passing through the tops of the trees he noticed a small compound built near the spot where the rainbow ran into the ground and disappeared. Under cover of the trees he made his way towards this encampment.

He paused at the edge of the forest to observe the place better. It looked for all the world like a TV movie western Fort. Wood pilings eight feet high formed the walls of the square camp. In each corner of the walls was a wood watchtower, a little higher than the fence, with a angular peaked roof. From what he could see from the tops of the trees were orderly, rectangular rows of small building or occasional tents. A wide row bisected the encampment, running from one large gate in the fence to another on the opposite wall. A flag hung in the exact center of the camp. It was square and red and divided into nine smaller squares by criss-crossing green lines. It looked like a giant tic-tac-toe square. Danny wondered what kind of idiot would take a game board for their flag.

He wanted to get closer but the moment he stepped out of the woods Cujo was right behind him. Danny figured he could hide well enough in the waist high grass in the meadow surrounding the fort, but at eight feet Cujo was just too conspicuous. Danny had to chase the ghost dog back into the woods and tell him to "stay." Unfortunately, the dog was too excited to have someone to play with that he didn't want to 'stay' but eventually Danny got it through the dogs head that he was to wait for his master to return.

Frustrated by the unexpected delay Danny rushed through the concealing grass faster than he should have. He came to a ditch close to one gate and halted there. He could see over the gate a plaque. "THE ORDER" had been painted on it in neat regular letters. Even allowing for the strangeness of ghosts that seemed weird for a supposedly secret society.

Danny was wondering how he was going to get through the gate. A couple ghosts were patrolling in front of it and seemed pretty vigilante in their duties.

"Will you be my friend?" a needy voiced asked.

Danny turned to see Klemper floating behind him. Klemper was wearing a uniform, black with green highlights. Klemper, like many ghosts, had no legs, just a wispy tail, above he wore a tight cloth coat, green strips ran down the seams on the arms and edged the pockets on the front. The shoulders were padded and capped with epaulets. On his head was a small round cap with a flat top and a small, flat bill. He looked like a train conductors such as Danny had seen in old time movies. There was a silver badge on his chest. It showed a giant eye surrounded by leafy branches. Were those called 'laurels'," Danny wondered. Instead he said, "I'm not your enemy, Klemper. How have you been doing? You look different, have you joined a club?"

"Yes." The ghost pulled itself up proudly. "I am a member of The Order. I have lots of friends now. I am so happy. I would be even happier of you were my friend, too."

"Good, good," Danny said, thinking furiously what more to ask. "I'm glad to see you getting out more. I hear some people aren't happy about joining The Order?"

"They don't know what they are missing. We are all friends here. We play games and have long talks and live together. It is everything I've ever wanted. You should join."

"Who's in charge of The order."

"The Commandants. They are so wise and thoughtful. Everything has a place in The Order and everything should be in its place."

Klemper was never the sharpest knife in the drawer. Danny could see it was going to take forever to get anything out of him. "What if someone doesn't want to join?"

"Who would not want to join?"

"But what if they don't?"

Klemper looked confused for a moment. Obviously this was a question he was not used to."

"Have you seen Johnny 13 around here," Danny asked, "His girlfriend, Kitty, is concerned about his whereabouts."

"Oh, he is in the Re-education class." Klemper answered. "He kept saying bad things about The Commandants so he had to go for Re-education."

Danny shuddered at the answer. This was beginning to sound all too much like World History class. He wondered there wouldn't be a test afterwards. "Is there any chance I could get in there to talk to Johnny? So I can reassure Kitty that he's OK?"

"I don't know. I should ask the Commandaths about that."

"Oh, we don't need to bother them about this. I'll just be in and out so fast nobody will notice. I just want to make sure that Johnny is OK. For his girlfriend..."

Klemper was thinking deeply about this when Danny heard "Beware!" shouted behind him them everything went black.


	4. Chapter 4

Danny regained consciousness as he was rudely dumped on a hard floor. "Beware, O great Commandants, for we found this spy lurking outside the camp." he held a familiar voice declare. That sounded like Clarence. The Box Ghost. A week ago he had crept into Danny's bedroom begging for help. And now he was part of the problem.

"He was going to be my friend," another voice complained. And that would be Klemper, who had early on joined The Order. Judging from the whine in his voice he was still having trouble getting people to be his friend.

"It is the haffa called Danny Phantom," a third voice, loud, deep and commanding, said. "He will be a threat to our plans." Danny tried to see who was speaking but his vision was blurred and doubled. Also it hurt to move his head. Danny had never had a splitting headache before, now he understood why it was called a 'splitting' headache because his head felt like it was going to break in two at any moment.

"He must be made a part of The Order." said another, but similar sounding voice.

"He will not join," the first voice objected.

"He must be made to. Send him to Re-education."

"Wait!" A new voice commanded. Danny recognized this voice with a shudder. Walker! Momentarily Danny was surprised to hear his voice but of course, the warden of the Ghost Zone's prison would be among the first to sign up with an authoritarian outfit like The Order.

"This haffa ghost can't be contained by normal walls - As I've learned to my regret. He has only to turn mortal and he can walk right through any barrier you confine him in."

Rats! Danny thought. He had been counting on that ability of his to get him out of whatever trouble he was in.

"In anticipation of once again having Danny Phantom within my jurisdiction I prepared this suppression belt. It will prevent him from changing from his current form."

Rough hands grasped him around the waist and pulled up. The sudden movement made his head hurt even worse. He could feel a band of some kind being wrapped around his waist. There was a snap of a buckle, a clip of something being turned on and his body was flooded with a painful tingling. It felt a bit like his parent's Ghost Deflected belt, but where it shocked only when he tried to use his ghost powers this hurt continually.

He was unceremoniously dropped to the ground again. Pain brought tears to his eyes. His stomach seemed on the verge of hurling. For a moment Danny founding himself wishing he was dead. At least the pain would be over...

"Take him away to the Re-Education unit," the first of what assumed were the leaders spoke.

"You two are to be complimented on your diligence in capturing this miscreant," the second leader added.

"He was going to be my friend," Klemper ventured.

"He was just going to use you. Your real friends are here in the Order." a third voice said. "The Commandants have spoken!"

"All hail the Commandants," the people in the room echoed.

Things had been happen to fast for Danny to pay much attention to the room he was in. But he had a chance just then to look around. It was a largely bare, square room. He had been dragged to the front where a raised dais supported three large chairs. Sitting on them were three of the strangest creatures Danny had ever seen. They were giant, walking eyeballs. Yellowish in hue. Despite their strangeness, Danny had seen them before. Observants. A race of ghosts who do nothing be observe the flow of time, the raveling of history. They bossed around Clockwork, the ghost master of time but had a horror of interfering with history. Apparently up till now. These three must have gone rogue. Danny wondered what Clockwork would do if he knew about them? What would the council of Observants do? Would they even get off their butts and do something, or just call this development part of the natural flow of history?

"The Order is my Friend." There was a waver of uncertainty in Klemper's voice but he picked up one side of Danny while the Box Ghost grasped the other. With his arms thrown over their shoulders they dragged him out of the tent they were in and across a compound to a wooden building. Inside, down a hallway were a number of cells with heavy doors with small openings for inspection. Danny was dragged into an empty cell and placed relatively gently on a bunk bed there.

"Friend?" Klemper asked

"It's been good seeing you," Danny answered. Even in all his pain he realized that he didn't want to call Klemper a friend. He'd never go away if you did.

The door closed with a slam. Danny lay there in a world of misery. Eventually he feel asleep.

* * *

><p>He wasn't sure how long he had been unconscious. The clang of a large dinner bell woke him up. He sit up gingerly and found that the pain in his head had settled down to a steady migraine. It wasn't easy to think but at least he could function somewhat. His cell was about six foot by eight, with half of it taken up by his bunk. There was the heavy door on one side and a small window to the outside on the opposite wall. He went over to it and looked out. An electric shock kept him from grasping the bars in the window. He could see a bit of the main compound. Ghosts of all sorts were streaming towards a large building, either to eat, which he didn't think Ghosts did, or to listen to a lecture on The Order.<p>

He remembered the belt around his waist and bent over to look at it. He almost puked from the nausea of bending over. He touched his head and was shocked to discover a swelling as big as a golf ball on the back of his head. He never thought people actually got knots on the back of their head when hit so it was a surprise to discover that they do. Also it made him worry that maybe he had a concussion, not that he would know what one was like, or what to do if he had one. He had to get out of here was fast as he could.

But first the belt.

It was made of a series of linked metal boxes. A button was set prominently on the center of the buckle. But when he reached for it an electric chock kept him from touching it.

He sat on his bunk, holding his head in his hands wondering what he was going to do.

He had sat there for a few minutes when he noticed the small tin pipe hanging from a chain around his neck. His dog whistle. Maybe Cujo would come if he blew. He wasn't sure what the ghost dog could do but he was pretty sure that in whatever chaos he causes he could escape.

He stepped over to the window, placed the little pipe to his lips and blew as hard as he could. After a moment he did it again, and then again. He could only wait, now, unsure that the dog whistle had worked since he couldn't hear its ultrasonic tone.

He didn't have to wait long. With a joyful bark and a loud crash a twelve foot section of the log fence around the encampment collapsed. Cujo leaped through the falling timbers and rushed up to Danny's prison. He tried to lick his master but the bars in the window were too close together.

Danny stepped back a few paces and called, "Come, boy," and blew a toot on the whistle. Cujo barked loudly and pushed heavily on the wall of Danny's prison. Which declined to fall down. The monstrous dog barked again and pressed forward again. When that didn't work he tried clawing at the walls, but that, too, failed to yield. Suddenly Cujo shrink to his puppy size and leaped between the bars. He jumped on Danny's shoulders from the sill of the window. That wasn't what Danny had intended either but he patted the ghost dog's head and called him a good boy. He'd lost the pouch of doggie treats so he couldn't reward the monster pet with a treat, so he fussed over the puppy some more.

While he petted the puppy, he tried to think of a plant 'B." Considering Cujo's casual disregard for walls and barriers on Earth Danny had been sure Cujo would easily crash through the wall of his prison. Walker must have reenforced it with some of his Prison technology. If Cujo couldn't break in he would have to play "Lassie" and bring someone to rescue him. He wasn't sure who this might be. The Lunch Lady was pretty weak and Ember McLain's powers didn't work on ghosts. There was Wulf, though. He could cut holes between dimensions. He ought to be able to crawl between dimensions to rescue him... That seemed to be the best he could hope for.

"Cujo!" Danny held up the puppy to face him. "You've got to go bring help. Can you do that? Bring Wulf, or the Lunch Lady. Bring them back here so they can free me. Can you do that boy? Can you bring me help?" Cujo barked happily and licked his face. That didn't seem too encouraging to Danny.

"Bring help, Cujo. You've got to bring help. You brought all those friends of yours when they needed my help, now I'm the one who needs help. Do you understand? Go, bring help!" With a final hug Danny tossed Cujo back through the window of his cell. The puppy ran around in a circle for a moment then, just before the guards from along the fence could catch up with him, the little pup transformed into his monsterous adult form, knocked a few ghost flying like so many ninepins and took off into the sky. Danny watched him fly away and with a sigh, sat down on his bunk. All he could do now was wait...and hope.

* * *

><p>There's no sun in the Ghost Zone, no rhythm of day and night, nothing to mark one moment from the next. So Danny had no idea how long he had been lying on hid bunk, nursing the fading end of his headache, when his cell door banged open and burly ghosts dressed in the black and green coats like Klemper wore, burst into the room, grabbed him, tied his arms and legs together and dragged him out of the prison, across the compound into another building thoughtfully labeled "Re-Education." He was carried into one of a number of rooms. It was set up like a classroom with twenty writing-table chairs arranged in four rows. He was roughly thrust onto one chair and his legs and waist lashed to the chair. He twisted and tore at his fastenings but couldn't break them.<p>

"They got you too, dude?"

Danny looked across to the next chair and found Johnny 13 similarly bounded to his chair. "I was looking for you?" Danny said.

"And now you've found me."

"This wasn't part of the plan. Kitty's worried about you."

"She is? She's a sweet lady."

"Wasn't too fond of seeing me."

"Well, you did keep her from getting a body."

"That was my sister!"

"Yeah," Johnny 13 said unapologetically. "She was one fine lady. How's she doing?"

"Fine, now that you're not around."

"That's harsh, man." Johnny 13 was dressed in biker clothes. He was rarely far from his motorcycle or his animated shadow. He was also wearing a restraining belt like Danny's, probably to keep his Shadow from escaping.

Before Danny could say anything more a door at the front of the room and another ghost dressed in the black and green Order unifrm came into the room. Danny swallowed nervously. Here was another of his many enemies. The ghost was tall, shapely with red hair sweep into a boufant hairdo that looked a pair of horns. Penelope Spectra.

"Hello, maggots. Are you ready for another day or re-education?" she asked sweetly. "I see we have a new class member, Daniel Fenton, AKA Danny Phantom." Spectra was walking on two legs. There were encased in tight leather pants tucked into calf-high boots. Her hands were covered with black leather gloves. One of them handle a swagger stick. She suddenly slammed this down on Danny's desk. It hit with the sound of an exploding firecracker.

"Welcome to hell!" She whispered. "When I get done with you, you will think black is white and three is five! You will love The Order. You will obey the Order. There will be nothing that the Order can tell that you won't believe. And the same goes for the rest of you." She sweep the crop around the room, which Danny saw was now filled with maybe a dozen other ghosts. None, other than Johnny 13, that he recognized.

"To begin: There is Chaos and there is Order." She slapped at the black board at the front of the room. On one part of the board was a picture of numerous balls flying in all directions. On the other side was a picture of the balls stacked in neat rows. It reminded Danny of his school lessions on the three stages of matter, in this case the difference between gases and solids.

"Chaos is bad," Spectra intoned. "People are always bouncing off other people, fighting, quarreling, getting in each others way. But Order is good. Every one has their place. Everyone moves in coordination with everyone else. There is no doubt, no confusion, no disharmony."

"You!" She pointed to Johnny 13, "Why should you love The Order?"

"Bite me!" he said.

"Wrong answer!" Pulling an object that looked like a TV remote out of a pocket she pointed it at him and pressed a button. Yellow static surrounded Johnny 13 and he groaned in pain.

"Bring it, bitch!" he groaned between clenched teeth. "You'll never break me."

Penelope Spectra leaned close over Johnny 13 and whispered in a voice loud enough for all the class to hear. "Everyone breaks eventually."

In a land without time, time passed softly but finally the guards came again and Danny was dragged back to his cell and thrown in. The guards didn't push hard, just enough to get him into the room while they closed the door. Nonetheless Danny collapsed to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. He lay there groaning softly as they turned the key in the door, locking it.

After a time Danny crawled across the floor to his bunk and dragged himself into it. He lay on his back, eyes closed, not moving, breathing shallowly.

"So this is what 1984 is like," he thought.

He felt whipped, battered, beaten to a pulp and yet in all the time he had been in that "classroom" Penelope Spectra had not once hit him. She had slammed her ruler on his desk inches away from his fingers, cracked the whip she carried inches from his head, shouted in his ears, pumelled him with question after question, demanding instanteous answers but never giving him time to speak. As he lay on his cot he wondered how he was going to handle another day of indoctrination. It had only been his first day and already he wasn't sure of what he believed in or where he stood on issues. He wondered how Johnny 13 survived day after day in Penelope Spectra's classroom. But then 13 was a habitual rebel, if there could be said to be such a thing. For him answering black when Penelope Spectra asked for "white" would be second nature for him. But for people like Klemper or the Box Ghost, Spectre's bullying, yelling, threats would be too much to fight. No wonder The Order kept growing.

He had to get out of here, and fast.


	5. Chapter 5

Someone was licking his face. The cold, wet, rough tongue was a welcome relief from his troubled sleep. Danny cracked open an eye just in time for the tongue to come slurping by but before hastily closing his eye again Danny had seem Cujo standing on his chest. In his puppy form, thankfully. He sat up and grabbed the little dog. "Hey, good boy. It's good to see you. Did you bring Wulf?"

"Wulf?" For a moment Danny thought the dog had spoken then realized that he wasn't alone in his prison cell.

"Jazz!" Danny cried in a mix of confusion and delight. "What are you doing here? How did you find me? Where's Wulf?"

"Wulf has -" she paused to think of an appropriately delicate term, "- issues with conflict."

"He was too afraid to come?"

"Considering his past experiences with prisons..." Jazz waved her hands uncertainly. "Anyway, once I realized that Cujo was playing 'Timmy's Trapped in the well,' I came here as fast as I could."

"How did you get in? Oh, wait, you're normal. You can walk right through these walls."

"That is so weird," Jazz agreed. "But why are you still here?"

"Belt. Some kind of anti-ghost ghost deflector. It's keeping me from turning back to normal. And as long as I'm a ghost these walls are real to me." Danny explained.

"Let's see." Jazzed reached for the belt.

"Be careful. There's a charge on it."

"Charge?" Jazz asked as she pressed the red button on the buckle that caused it to pop open. The restraint belt fell to the floor. "It must have been tuned to your body so you couldn't mess with the controls." Jazz picked up the belt. "We ought to take this to Dad. I beat he's be interested to see how it was put together."

"And explain to him how we got it?" Danny reminded her.

She dropped the belt. "Good point. Well, let's get out of here before any guards sees us."

Danny quickly changed back to his human form and together they walked through the outside wall like it was so much colored air. Once out Danny changed back to a ghost, picked up his sister and rocketed out of the compound. Guards were only beginning to sound an alarm when he soared over the poles of the fortress and disappeared in the distance. Cujo, racing behind him, just charged through the palisades.

The fortress of The Order was well behind them when Jazz pointed off to one side. "The speeder's over there," she said.

Danny swooped low and angled to the clump of brush she pointed to. After a minute he found the speeder and landed beside it.

"Let's get out of here," Jazz said as she punched in the security code on the lock pad next to the hatch.

"No," Danny said.

"No?"

"We've got to put a stop to this. You need to go to Clockwork and tell him that rogue Observants are behind this."

"Clockwork? I thought he wasn't allowed to interfere," Jazz said.

"The Observants tell him he can't interfere but when they find out that rogue Observants are trying to take over the Ghost Zone he, or more exactly the bulk of Observant society will have to interfere. Find Clockwork and everything will take care if itself."

"Didn't you said he tries to avoid being found? How do I find someone who doesn't want to be found?"

"I'm guessing that he'll want to be found. He lives in the past, the present and the future so in some way he probably already knows all about this but until we do something he can't do anything. So, you going to find him gives him permission to let you find him."

"Danny, that doesn't make a bit of sense."

"I know. None of it makes any sense but with time travel all logic gets thrown out the window. Trust me. Go to where we last found Clockwork and look around. He'll be there."

"Why aren't you going? You know him a lot better than I do."

"There's about a dozen prisoners there. Johnny 13 and a bunch of guys I don't know. I'm going to free them and stir up as much trouble as possible until you get back. With twelve bad-asses at my back I think we can really make of mess of things. Keep the renegade Observants from seeing Clockwork approach. Stuff like that."

"Danny, there are too many people there. You'll get hurt. Come with me to get Clockwork and then we'll come back with a regular army."

"Sorry, Jazz, this is how it's got to be. All those ghosts came to me for help knowing that I would and could help. This is what they expected of me. And this is what I'm going to do. Go. Find Clockwork. I want to get back in there while they're running around all confused about what happened." He gave his sister a quick hug then pushed her toward the Specrtal Speeder. He didn't wait to see if she got in, but turned and lifted into the air. A moment later he swooped down and picked up the puppy Cujo. He scratched the ghost dogs head for a moment. "Come on, let's kick some butt." he said.

With a deep sense that she was making the wrong decision and wondering how she's let her brother get the upper hand just now, Jazz entered the Specter Speeder. She was the big sister, she was one with all the psychological training; when did she lose the ability to twist her little brother around her fingers? "Be careful, Danny," she prayed and got the Speeder moving.

[I]

With the demon dog riding on his should Danny flew back to the Order's camp and carefully picked his way across the open ground. Being a ghost in the Ghost Zone wasn't as much of an advantage for sneaking around as being a ghost on Earth. He found the cluster of building where the prisoners were being held for 'Re-education.' He sat Cujo down and told him to "stay" then went human and walked through the wall. He found himself in a utility closet at the end of a corridor. Cells sprang off the corridor on either side. The third one down held Johnny 13. As he was the only one Danny knew by name he had decided to start here.

Johnny was lying across his bed looking blankly at the ceiling. He sat up when Danny walked into the room and called to him.

"Hey, Danny. The Dan-Man. How's it going?" he asked with something of a forced chipper attitude. "How's your sister, the Lovely Jazz..." He stopped in mid-word. "Oh, nuts, you're free. You must have joined them. I thought you would hold out longer than that."

Something snapped inside Danny at the mention of his sister. With an unintended growl he leaped across the room and grabbed Johnny 13 by the front of his prison garb and hauled him up within inches of his face.

"My sister is off-limits, you understand!" Danny snarled. "You don't come calling on her. You don't talk to her. You don't mention her ever again in my presence. Do you understand?"

"Whoa, dude, what did I ever do to you ... oh, that." Johnny had remembered that he had courted Jazz purely so that his ghost girlfriend, Kitty, could possess Jazz's body. Kitty's body had been damaged in a portal accident and couldn't survive on its own in the Earth zone.

"Yeah. That!"

"But I would never harm a hair..."

Danny shook Johnny, no easy task since Johnny 13 was taller and heavier than Danny. "Not a word!"

"Dude!"

"And I escaped. I didn't join the Order, in fact, I'm here to break you and the other prisoners out so we can over-throw the Order."

"I'm game, man. I'd like nothing better than to get back at them Commandants for what they've done to me."

Danny looked over Johnny's prison suit and spotted a device similar to what had been attached to him. "Is this what's inhibiting your Shadow?" he asked. When Johnny nodded, Danny grabbed and took it off. "Better?"

In answer Johnny 13's shadow split off from his body and circled the small cell at lightning speed.

Danny had no reason to trust Johnny 13 so when he saw Johnny's shadow start to slip around behind him, he was ready. He spun around, going 'ghost' in an instant and just as the shadow was about to leap upon him, shot it with a quick burst of ectoplasmic fire from his hand. The shadow fell to the floor and spilled along it like quicksilver until it found Johnny and reattached itself to him.

Danny turned to Johnny and waved the ghost restraint device in his face. "This can go back on just as easily as it came off, so watch it!"

"Dude, that is so cold. I wasn't doing anything. It was just my nature." Johnny protested.

"And it's my nature to beat up bad ghosts but I haven't done that because I need to your help overthrow the Order. We're not out of this until those Commandantrs are locked up, so control your 'nature' and don't try to double-cross me, got it?

"Yeah, dude, I got it."

"By the way, Kitty says 'hello.' She was one of the people who asked me to come and help with this Order thing. So keep that in mind. I'm here because your girlfriend cared enough about you to worry."

Danny slipped back to human, walked through the wall and unlocked the door to Johnny's cell. "Any guards around here?" he asked.

"There's usually a couple in the common area," Johnny answered. "I can take care of them." He set his shadow loose and it whipped down the hallway and around a corner. There were the brief sounds of scuffling, then the shadow came back.

"It's all clear," Johnny announced with a satisfied grin.

Danny took a cautious look around the corner. It was a large room with a few tables along the walls, chairs, some cabinets and three very unconscious guards. Danny wondered for a moment if they were dead then realized that he wouldn't know how to find out. Ghosts didn't have hearts or internal organs like people so they didn't have a pulse to check on. He assumed that when ghosts died they evaporated into the ectoplasma that was the only substance in the Ghost Zone.

Lying on the floor next to the bodies were the batons that the guards always carried. Danny picked one up and looked at it. It was about thirty-six inches long with a rubberish grip on one end and a weighted lump at the other. Touching the lumpish end of the baton delivered a mild jolt causing Danny to drop the baton. "We could use a bunch of these," he said. "But first lets get the rest of our recruits out of their cells and explain to them what we're going to do."

While Johnny 13 was letting out the other prisoners Danny collected the batons from next to the guards and put them on a table out of the way.

There were twelve in all. Johnny ran through their names but most went by so quickly that Danny didn't catch them all. They were a scary lot, tall, but then as barely a teen-ager Danny hadn't had his last growth spurt and was quite short. There was about them an ugly, menacing tone. Just standing there they had an intimidating aura. Danny realized that if he was going to command this gang he couldn't afford to show any fear or uncertainty.

A few stood out. One, tall even among this group, looked like a Viking laced up leather pants, a furry vest and a helmet with horns sticking out of the sides. After a moment Danny realized he wasn't wearing a helmet... or a vest. Horns really were growing out of the sides of his head. Johnny called him The Thunderer for some reason.

Another ghost Danny immediately thought of as Pyscho because he was in constant, twitchy motion. His face looked screwed up in broiling anger. Danny couldn't remember what Johnny said his real name was, but it didn't matter he was and would always be "Psycho." He watched Thunderer claim one of the batons and instantly he had to have one, too. He waved it around a bit like a sword until some of the other ghosts growled at him and told him to put it away.

A third that stood out as a shorter fellow, covered in a dewy moisture. He didn't look like a hard case, though obviously he was, being in with his group. His name was Ooze. What he oozed Danny wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Hey, guy," Johnny began, "This is Danny Phantom. He's one righteous dude, OK? He's here to fight the Order. He set me free, and he set you free. He's got a plan to overthrow the Commandents so I want you to listen closely to what he has to say!"

Danny gave a start when he realized that he was supposed to have a plan. He was more of a making-it-up-as-you-go-along kind of guy. When it came time to lay out his plan Danny suspected he'd be as surprised by it as the rest of them.

"I ain't fighting no Order. I just want to be left alone," one grizzly hulk grumbled. "I'm out of here." He headed towards the door.

"Wait!" Danny shouted. "If you leave now you'll just be recaptured in a minute, then they'll know the rest of us are free. Then we'll all be prisoners again. No one leaves until we're ready to take on the Order!"

"Try and stop me, little man!" the ghost laughed and turned his back on Danny.

Danny bristled. His snowy hair whipped about in some unfelt breeze. He pointed his index finger at the ghost and willed out a vast amount of gooey ectoplasm. The stream of green snot struck the departing ghost in the back, flung him against the wall and covered him in thick layer of the goop. The ghost struggled to break free but found the ectoplasm too strong.

"Anyone else planning to leave?" Danny asked.

"No, man. We're good." said a ghost whose face looked like it had been used many times as a battering ram. "So what's the plan?" The dozen thuggish ghosts turned to him, their eyes looking on him expectantly. He felt like he did on show-and-tell days back in grade school. Where to begin? At the beginning, of course...

"The Order is basically three renegade members of the society of Observants. They're calling themselves Commandants now, but they're really Obversants. As a society Observants are very tidy and I guess you'd say law-and-order people but they're adverse to interfering in the course of history, so mostly they keep to themselves. These three apparently have decided that orderliness is more important than non-interference so they're trying to organize the Ghost Zone into one big happy, uniform body so that nothing will ever change here again. But ghosts, I hardly need to tell you guys, aren't particularly given to orderliness so if we can take out the three Commandants this whole Order things will collapse on itself. But to get to the Commandants we're going to have to go through their lieutenants first. Those are some heavy weight ghosts - Walker, Technus, Skulker, Penelope Spectra, maybe others. They're the ones we've got to hit first. So, can someone tell me where we'd find Skulker and Walker?

"They stay in the barracks next to the Commandant's Hall." Johnny told him. "A lot of the camp is run out of there, as far as I can tell."

"Great, great," Danny said. This might work out after all. A concerted rush on the barracks and maybe they could bottled up all their troubles in one place.

"I don't know," grumbled the ghost who face looked like it had been hammered on repeatedly. "Those Commandants have some weird power. One look from them and a ghost can't move. How can you fight something like that?"

Inside Danny was dismayed though he refused to show it. Could this be some version of Clockwork's "Time Out" where he could stop the flow of time for everyone but himself and anyone wearing his special clock medallions? It sounded like it and that was a hard power to beat. But Clockwork Danny recalled used a staff to create his "Time Outs." From what Hammerhead was saying the Commandents didn't need a staff. Could that mean they had more power than Clockwork, which would be a scary thought. Or did it mean that they were using some other power? Danny remembered something hammer-face had said.

"They have to look at you for this freezing thing to work?" he asked. "It's definitely eye-contact, or can they freeze everyone in a room, even the one's not looking at them?" he asked.

Hammerhead thought about that for a moment, "I think they have to make eye contact," he answered. "At least that's how they caught me."

"I'll bet they're hypnotizing you into thinking you can't move but aren't actually freezing you in your tracks. So as long as we avoid eye-contact that can't pull that trick on us."

"How are we going to do that?" One of the other ghosts challenged.

"We'll worry about that later."

"What about some weapons, man?" Another ghost asked. "I don't mind wading in on a fight with Walker - he's got some payback coming his way - but I'd don't want to go after him unarmed."

"Yeah," another ghost agreed.

Danny could sense that he was on the verge of losing his army. They only appreciated toughs

"I agree," Danny told him. He went over to the table and picked up one of the batons. "These look pretty good. We just need some more."

The Thunderer pushed his way through the group and picked up one of the batons. He swung it around like a club, nearly braining a ghost or two before announcing "Is Goot!"

Psycho was beside him in an instant, grabbing up another of the batons. "Yeah, baby!" he cried. "Now we're talking." flourishing it more like a sword.

"What about the rest of us," Hammerhead asked. Aren't we going to get one?"

"You want one?" Danny asked.

"Damn straight I do!"

"Here" Danny took the last baton and pitched it towards hammerhead, blunt end first. The ghost grabbed the weighted end then dropped it with a cry of pain. The other ghosts laughed. Danny struggled to keep a straight face.

"We're all going to have batons, " he told them. "We just have to get enough for everybody. And I've got a plan for that. A little thing called vaudeville. All we need is one cute and cuddly dog, and I've got one waiting outside." He left to fetch Cujo.

* * *

><p>AUTHOR'S NOTE: The first chapter of this story was the first time I'd ever added a note at the end of the story. Imagine my embarrassment to be told by my daughter that I had been very unprofessional about how I did that. Since I have gone out of my way to prepare these stories professionally I wondered what happen, went back to preview the story and was surprised by the number of things Fan-Fic had done to my text. I had typed a line of "="'s to create my own rule not knowing that was a rule button in "edit" Also all the double hyphens that I used in place of the special character "em-dash" had been reduced to a single hyphen, the three asterisks I use to separate scenes in the story were wiped out. Even ellipses ("...") get eliminated unless they are no more or no less than three dots long. All of this is kind of crazy. I typed and edited my stories so that they would look good when loaded into HTML I used simple ascii characters and expected them to appear in my story where I put them. As they do when I post these stories on DeviantArt. In fact it was because DA would post my stories unchanged that I never bothered to preview my stories here before this. So sorry for all the years of messed up design.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Coming back to the room with Cujo in his arms Danny found that the ghost he called hammerhead was fighting with another ghost over possession of the third guard's baton.

"Drop it!" Danny shouted.

"He started it," Hammerhead complained.

This must be what it's like to be a parent, Danny thought. "We're going to get batons for everybody," he told the group. Stop fighting over the ones we have now."

"This one's mine!" Hammerhead insisted."You gave it to me."

"And he threw it away. So now it's' mine."

"Give it to me," Danny told them, holding out his hand just like his father had so often done when he and Jazz had argued over stuff. When finally, reluctantly hammerhead handed the baton back, Danny continued. "This little fellow is going to get all the batons we need."

"How?" challenged the ghost who had been fighting with Hammerhead. Danny dubbed him Squint-eyes because he looked like he was always squinting. "By playing fetch?"

"Actually that's pretty much the plan." Danny said

"You're crazy."

Danny couldn't let that stand. If he let anyone get away with challenging his authority soon no one would listen to him.

Danny set Cujo on the floor and told the puppy, "Heel." With a yip it move to the side of his foot and sat down. Danny hadn't gotten that far along in training the puppy. But it was the ghost of a trained guard dog so he was willing to gamble that it remembered commands it learned back when it was alive.

"You don't think this dog can get us all the batons we need?" Danny challenged back.

"No."

Danny smiled confidently for a couple seconds that crisply ordered, "Cujo, hold!" He pointed to Squint-eyes.

With a short growl the puppy leaped. Or more exactly it expanded into its eight-foot adult form, reached over and seized Squint-eyes about the neck. Considering the size of his head Cujo also engulfed the ghost's head and part of one shoulder. His jaws tightened but not so hard as to crush anything. Cujo pushed the ghost to the floor and stood over him growling.

"Get this monster off me!" Squint-eye was yelling as best he could from inside the dog's mouth. His legs thrashed in the air as he tried to get loose.

Danny walked over, looked down at the malcontent, then held out his hand. From the corner of his eye he could see The Thunderer reverse his baton and slap it into Danny's hand. He fought to suppress a smile of triumphant. He knew he had one loyal ghost on his side.

He found the switch that turned off the charge to the baton's head and tapped the leg of the struggling ghost. "Do you have any doubts about my plan now?"

"No! No! Get this thing off me."

"Are you going to give me any more lip?"

"You're the boss, man. Let me go."

"Good, because if we're going to take down the Order we can't have any dissension in the ranks. Until we take down the Commandants I'm giving the order and you're following them. That goes for all of you," he said, looking around the room. There was a chorus of agreement.

"Good. Cujo! Release!"

The monster dog opened its mouth and like Squint-eyes drop to the floor. Danny patted the dog and scratched under one enormous ear.

"Now what I need is for someone to get me one of those guard's jacket and roll it into a ball. Do it in a way that the markings face out so people can tell it's a guard jacket. The rest haul these guards into one of the cells and tied and gag them so they won't cause any trouble when they wake up. You two," he pointed to The Thunderer and Psycho, "come with me while we get this trap set up.

[I]

Arkaly and Akane, Guards First Class, were leisurely patrolling the area and talking about what they planned to do the next time they were off-duty. Which mostly involved getting jazzed on ectoplasm, gambling and ogling the lady guards, not one of whom would ever give Arkaly and Akane so much as the time of day.

When the black ball of fabric came bouncing to a stop near their feet they looked at it, then at each other, then again at the cloth ball. They were still considering what to do when a bulldog puppy came bounding out of the alley, snatched up the ball in its teeth and ran back.

In silent agreement, the two guards pulled out their batons, activated the electric shock and followed the dog into the alley. From behind some trash cans a small boy in a black uniform - but not their uniform - stepped out juggling the mysterious object in his hand. "Looking for this?" he asked.

They lunged forward to grab him. And that's when the lights went out.

[II]

Two more pairs of guards fell for Danny's ruse. They would rush into the alley following the mysterious ball, only to find Thunderer and Psycho stepping out from behinds piles of trash. Before they could react the two malcontents had laid them out on the ground. A pair of ghosts would dash out of prison and drag the victims inside where they were tied up, gagged and stashed with the other guards.

By then Danny could see that the camp was getting agitated over the missing guards, but no one was sure what was happening. So a patrol of six guards was sent out, slowly following the route of the missing guards, only looking into every shadow, alley and pile of trash present. When they got near the prison Danny motioned for Thunderer and Psycho to crouch down behind the trash in the alley, placed the rolled up uniform in the middle of the alley, slightly behind them and crouched behind Thunderer with Cujo by his side.

"Wait until they see you," Danny warned his men. "Try to get them as far into the alley as possible."

They didn't have long to wait. The platoon cautiously entered the alley, hugging tightly to the side of the buildings. When they saw the ball of clothing, though, one darted ahead to pick it up. He was just turning around to show it to the others when he noticed Danny and the others.

"Cujo, hold!" Danny commanded, pointing to the guard with the cloth ball. As the ghost dog lunged at the man, Danny took to the air, flipped over the mound of trash to the front of the alley and attacked the rear of the troops. Dodging his bolts of ectoplasmic fire, they rushed through the opening between the piles of trash, looking for safety from Danny's attack. They weren't expecting Thunderer and Psycho to be waiting for them .

But they weren't greenhorns, either.

They'd blocked the first swings of Thunderer and Psycho, then formed up into a circle. Batons were flashing left and right, sparks occasionally showering down when charged ends met. Danny swept over them and landed next to Cujo. He picked up the guard's dropped baton. "Release!" he commanded. When the guard bounded on the ground Danny whacked him over the head. The guard stopped trying to get up. Pointing the the melee behind him, Danny said, "Attack!" and Cujo took off with a thunderous bark.

Guards and ex-prisoners went flying. While Cujo worried one of the guards Danny walked up to another and knocked him out. Psycho took care of another guard. The remaining three guards made a break for the mouth of the alley but Cujo took after them with a joyous bark. He landed on one and slammed another to the ground with a gigantic paw. The third thought he was free but when he looked back all he saw was The Thunderer's thrown baton. It took him in the mouth and he went down. Danny had Cujo release the guards and knocked them out. While Thunderer and Psycho gathered up the batons and threw a couple of the unconscious guards over their shoulders, Danny scooted down to the mouth of the alley and peered around the corner. The camp continued to humming with uncertain excitement, no one was looking there way in particularly. He hurried back inside.

Danny sought out the smallish, damp looking ghost named Ooze. "Ooze," he began, "are your powers, like, a weather related?"

"Mostly fogs, somethings a little drizzle. Once I iced down a parking lot during winter. Man was that a sight. People slipping and falling. Cars just drifting all over the place. I nearly crapped myself laughing.

"Good times," Danny agreed. "So, can you raise a fog out there to cover the parade grounds. Something to give us cover while we run from here to Walker's headquarters?"

"Piece of cake."

"Get working on it." Danny then turned to the rest of his troops, wondering how best to organize them. He was used to doing all the fighting himself so playing general wasn't something he was familiar with. He decided to divide them into two groups. One lead by Johnny 13 and the other by Thunderer. The Viking-themed ghost seemed reasonably level headed and focused, unlike, say, Psycho. Johnny's group would go after Walker while Thunderer would take on Skulker. Danny would take point and fight whoever he ran into first.

By then Ooze had raised a deep, thick fog. Almost too thick since if they couldn't find their way to the right building the element of surprise would be lost. Ooze, however, seemed to have a sense of direction even in his own fogs and lead the way. They pounded up to the building's door and crashed through.

The doors opened into a large open room, two stories high. Smaller rooms opened off the first and second floors. A balcony ran around the length of the large room and there was a single stairs. Ghosts mostly levitated so stairs were largely unnecessary. A number of guards were loitering in the room. The two gangs pounced on them, pounding them into a pulp. There was a lot of shouting and scream. Danny swept around the room looking for Walker or Skulker, or even Technus.

Walker exploded from an upstairs room, shouting commands at the guards down below and at the handful the spilled out after him. Danny blasted the supports under the balcony and it collapsed, dropping Walker and his guards into a heap on the ground floor. Ghosts who have formed legs will fall if knocked over. At least until they remember that they can fly.

Danny yelled at Johnny 13 to get his men on Walker. And swooped down to blast as many of his guards as he could. Sudden explosions caused him to swirl around. Skulker had come out of a room on the opposite of the room and was spraying the battle zone with ectoplasmic fire. Danny dodged some close blasts and replied, knocking out the supports under balcony where Skulker stood. The Ghost Hunter's rocket pack blazed into life before he could fall a foot.

Skulker dove towards Danny and they exchanged fire.

Danny found himself giving way under Skulker's furious attack. An off-key yodel distracted him for a moment. Danny watched as Thunderer launched himself from a part of the standing balcony onto Skulker, swinging his baton like it was a hammer. Skulker took a clanking blow to his headpiece which wrenched sideways. Another blow and Thunderer had smashed the helmet from the Hunter's head. Which revealed Skulker's secret. Skulker was a tiny ghost piloting a man-sized automaton. The headpiece went tumbling for a moment until tiny rockets stabilized its flight and carried it out of the room.

"Yes!" Danny shouted, relieved to have driven one of bigger dangers to his plan out of the battle. But his exaltation was cut short when cold metallic tentacles circled around him. Danny struggled to break free from them but they had closed on around too tightly.

Glancing over his shoulder he could see Technis floating near-by. The tentacles sprouted from some hardware around his waist. "Child, what an unexpected surprise!" Technus declared in his squeaky, high-pitched voice. "Did you think the Order was that easy to overthrow? We are strong because we plan, we control the chaos, we dominate! You and your motley horde of malcontents will never prevail!" The master of Technology paused to laugh. Then he waved his hand around the room. The batons in the hands of the rebels began twisting in their hands, trying to strike back at their wielders, like a snake. The ghosts threw them away and grabbed up broken bits of wood. The battle raged on with little pause.

Danny was gasping for breath. The metal arms coiled around him were cutting off his breath. "Join or die, child! Which shall it be? Don't think for a moment that you can defeat my mechanical arms. They were designed to be too strong for you." He cackled again. "What's it going to be, child? Join - or die!"

Through the roaring in his ears Danny thought he had the plucking of guitar strings. It seemed to run a short scale up and down strings before there was an ear-shattering, crashing roar. The front of the building collapsed in a shower of dust and debris. Floating beyond it, guitar glowing like a neon sun, was Ember McLain. "Yeah!" she cried. "Let's party!"

Ember strummed her guitar again, sending more shockwaves into the building. "Hey, hotpants," she called to Danny, "need some help?"

Danny tried to speak but had too little breath left to even croak. He waved a hand, inviting her to come. The former rock star shifted the guitar in her hands, holding by the neck. She swooped down on Technus, swinging the instrument like a bat. There was a rattlely ka-blong and Technus's grip on Danny loosened. Danny pushed the metal tentacles away and gasped for air. Technically there is no air in the Ghost Zone. Things are what you thing of them. If you think you have to breath, then you have to breath. Danny sucked in non-existent air for a moment.

Behind Ember he could see The Lunch Lady spraying the room with mystery meat patties ejected from what looked like an old-fashion hand-held meat-grinder. Youngblood was running around in an Indian costume whacking people on the shins with his tomahawk. Rollo the Ball Ghost was bouncing around the room like a runaway medicine ball while Lord Faultless Roy was delicately whacking people with his walking stick.

"What are you doing here?" He burst out before realizing how accusatory it sounded. That was not Danny's intentions, but he was surprised that the society of PET'EM had actually put themselves at risk to come to his aid.

"Hey, if you don't want us, we don't have to stay," Ember snapped back.

"No, no, no. Please stay. We need all the help we can get. I just thought you were..." there was no good way to end that so Danny just left it in the air.

Ember shifted her guitar, pointing the neck of it at something to Danny's left. She hit a chord and fire exploded out of the head, blowing the ghost that had been trying to sneak up behind Danny across the room. "You thought we were a bunch of cowards, right?" Ember finished his thought. "Yeah, well," Ember paused and swung her guitar again like an ax. "Your sister came by and read us the Riot Act about not helping you."

"She was supposed to go to Clockwork!" Danny said, aghast that his sister hadn't followed his plan.

"She stopped on her way there. Threatened to cut off her therapy sessions if we didn't do something. And well, a bunch of us kind like the meetings. So here we are."

"Thanks. Really. Thanks. We got to stop Walker from getting his guards organized and keep Skulker from getting back to his body.. It looks like you took care of Technus for now. Penelope Spectra is around here somewhere. Don't listen to her; just shut her up. I've got to get next door and arrest some Observants. Take them out and their game is over."

"I'll take care of Spectra." Ember said. "I've got some things to say to her. Call me a 'needy little bitch' will she." Ember started to fly into the midst of all the fighting. She paused as she passed Danny and started to say something. But for someone used to speaking, or at least singing, the words wouldn't come to her. After a moment she turned away and said in passing, "good luck kid."

* * *

><p>AUTHOR'S NOTE - When writing about Ember's music I thought about from of my favorite riffs by Neal Young. I'm a big fan of Neal. You're welcome to play your own favorite power chords instead.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

Danny took a quick look around the room. Fighting had largely stopped. The front of the building lay in ruins. Beyond it he could see a crowded mass of troops from The Order but they seemed hesitant to charge into the remains of the building. Perhaps they were waiting for someone to give them an order. Walker was sprawled on the floor,, a sight Danny had hoped but never really expected to see. However around him, in a pile, were four of his dozen renegades, including Psycho and Hammerhead. That was a third of his "army" right there. He felt a chill running down his back. How was he going to defeat the Commandants with such a small force. It had seemed so easy at first but now that reality was setting in Danny was losing his confidence. Still the members of PET'EM had come to his aid after all. And there was some hope in that.

Looking around he found Wulf standing in a corner, carefully looking for guards to attack. Danny remembered how when he had first met Wulf the werewolf-like creature had been throwing guards around like so many rag dolls. Wulf was incredibly strong and, when desperate, a ruthlessly aggressive fighter. But he tended to avoid fights. That he had come at all with his PET'EM colleagues had been a surprise. Danny couldn't fault him for taking a diffident approach to the battle, that was just who Wulf was, but he could use the other, more forceful, Wulf right now.

"Wulf," he cried, "good to see you!"

"Friend." Which was about all the English Wulf knew. He awkwardly hugged Danny, being careful not to shred him with his dimension-rendering claws.

"I need a favor from you," Danny said. "I need a tunnel from this room through some other dimension into the back of the room in the next building. Can you do that?"

"Tun-nel" Wulf echoed. Danny wasn't sure if that meant Wulf understood what he asked or not.

"We need to go there," Danny said, pointing towards the wall nearest the Commandant's main building. "We don't want to go out there." He pointed to the masses of people waiting expectantly outside the front of the building they were in.

"Ah-h." Wulf growled. "Tun-nel." and he made kind of a looping gesture towards the wall Danny had indicated.

"Yes! Tunnel!"

Wulf flexed his claws and bounded across towards towards the wall Danny had pointed to. Danny looked around and found Johnny 13 fighting with a guard across the room. Danny flew towards them and socked the guard from the rear. He realized that this wasn't the honorable way to win battles but from years of being bullied in school, realized that honor and winning rarely went hand in hand.

"Johnny, gather up the rest of our guys. Wulf is going to open a portal into the Commandant's room. We're going to take them by surprise."

Johnny nodded agreed and rushed away. Danny went to find the rest of PET'EM. He found the Lunch Lady on the upper floor balcony nursing a charred hand. Her machine-gun meat-grinder lay on the floor in a melted twisted mess. "Are you going to be OK?" He asked.

The elderly ghost scowled and held up her other hand. "I've still got my ladle!" Danny looked at the large metal scoop and nodded. He pointed to where Wulf was. "We're going through there to take out the Commandant and put an end to this Order thing."

She flew off.

Danny looked around some more, finding both Rollo and Lord Faultless Roy sprawled on floor. He wasn't sure what they could have brought to the fight but he would have liked to have still had them with him.

Youngblood came limping up, dressed as the Spirit of 1776, wrapped in bandages and tapping on a drum. Danny wasn't sure whether he was just in costume or seriously hurt but directed him over by Wulf as well. Then he went looking for Ember.

He found her trashing a room on the upstairs floor. "Where's Penelope Spectra?"

"The bitch took a powder!" Ember snarled. "Took one look at me and ran. Didn't even have a chance to hit her! I tried blasting her out of the sky with a hot riff but she was already too far away."

"And this..." Danny waved at the trashed room.

"Just making sure there isn't anything for her to come back to."

"Uh huh. Look, Wulf's digging a tunnel into the Commandant's building. We take them out this Order thing will just collapse. You want in on that, or do you have a little more aggro to take out on this room?"

"I don't know who the hell the Commandants are but if that pulls the plug on these goosesteppers, let's do it!"

Danny joined the group as Wulf was shredding through dimensions. Looking at his motley crew Danny quailed. How was he supposed to overthrow the leaders of such a large organization with thousands of members with less than twelve fighters on his side.

Brave front, he thought, brave front. Can't let the others know his own doubts.

As Wulf pulled apart the last dimensional scrim Danny finally could see into the master chamber. Wulf had found a back wall, like he had asked. Through the portal they could see scores and scores of guards filling the main hall, all facing towards the front doors. The three Commandants could be seen at their chairs, waiting for something to happen.

"Man, that's a lot of guards," Johnny 13 whispered.

"Yeah, but they're too close together. They'll get into each other's way when they have to fight." Danny answered.

That gave him an idea. He flew over to where Cujo was cheerfully tearing the uniform off one of the downed guards. Danny took it from his enormous jaws, slapping the beast friendily on the neck. He tied the shredded uniform in a knot and called for the dog to follow. As they got to the portal the other ghosts readily gave way to the monster dog.

In front of the portal Danny teased Cujo for a moment with the knotted up uniform before throwing it far into the Commandant's command chamber. "Fetch!" Danny said and slapped the dog on its rump. With a joyful bark the eight foot tall dog bounded into the room. Guards were scattered like ninepins when the got into the dog's way.

"Let go!" Danny yelled and charged into the room. "Remember don't look the Commandants in the eye!"

He formed a large shield of ectoplasm and sweep around the room, knocking over more guards, clipping the ones trying to get up. The other had spread out as they crossed over into the Command hall and were engaged with the guards on a more one-to-one basis. Johnny 13, though remembered their purpose and was heading straight for the trio of chairs the Commandants were sitting in. His shadow split off and swooped after one while Johnny hurled himself at another.

"Gotcha, you bast-" his scream was cut off abruptly as Johnny stiffened and fell just in front of the Commandant. His shadow screamed as well, plowed through the Commandant, throwing him from his chair. Then Johnny's shadow raced back to the paralyzed ghost and fused with his body.

Danny, staring at their feet, tried to drive through them with his shield but the chairs were built with elaborate backs and wooden sides and bolted tightly to the floor. His shield caught on the chair and sent him tumbled through the air before cracking up against a wall. He rolled up into the air again, charging the commandants, this time hurling balls of flaming ectoplasm at them. He rocketed over their heads, turning around as fast as he could. While looking at them only from the corner of his eye he could tell that his fireballs had bounced off them harmlessly.

He came in from above for another attack. While two of the Commandants were scrambling for shelter under the table in front of their chairs, the third turned to stare in Danny's direction. Danny turned his eyes away as fast as he could but apparently it wasn't fast enough. He felt his arms and legs grow stiff and heavy. He fought hard to break the spell of status. But while he could sort of move his arms it was like they had fallen asleep; they are hard to manage, hard to force them to do what he wanted.

He flew past the Commandant's dais of Authority and smacked into the ceiling before falling to the floor. Guards were scrambling to surround him when a sharp musical blast sent them tumbling.

"He's my sock money," Ember cried, "Hands off!"

She turned towards the Commandants and began playing a fast-paced melody on her guitar. Her fingers blurred as they plucked at the strings. "Don't try your games on me!" she shouted, "I'm the master of hypnosis around here! People hear my songs and they can't stop chanting my name. Say it!"

The guards slowly began chanting "Ember! Ember!" Danny was surprised that Ember had any kind of power over other ghosts. He had thought her crowd controlling power worked only on humans. Maybe the chanting of her name over here in the Ghost Zone didn't give her special powers but she did have the guards stopped in their tracks.

She slide into another melody, one with a pronounced one-two-three beat. Slowly the guards started a shambling dance to the beat. Danny found that as the Commandants attention focused on Ember his paralysis was wearing off. He forced himself off the floor and on to his feet. He stagged towards the center of the room where the Commandant's dais rose. He flicked his eyes back and forth around the room, avoiding the dangerous eye-contact with the giant eyes of the renegade Observants.

As he neared their dais he knew he only had one shot at ending this. He'd already learned that they were invulnerable to average ectoplasmic fire. He would have to hit them with something much harder. Something that was sure to take them out. There was only one trick left in his arsenal that could do that.

He paused about fifteen feet from the chairs and took a breath. He reached deep inside himself and found the power. Then he opened his mouth and whispered a light wavering "O-o-o"

But the song, the wail that poured out of his mouth hit with a power of a sledge hammer. The heavy table in front of the Commandants went sailing over their heads. The chairs they were seated in rocked and creaked before collapsing into a storm of shards and kindling. The Commandants were hauled into the air, bounced off the ceiling which shook and trembled like a canvas sheet instead of the wood like structure it was. The Commandants fell to the floor, were picked up again and dashed against the back wall of the room. The wall shuddered and collapsed on them. The ceiling started to fall but was caught in the force of the Wail and was blown far into the sky.

The Ghostly Wail trailed off. It had only lasted a few seconds but had utterly devastated the Command Center of the Order. Ghosts who had been near the direction of Danny's Ghostly Wail were collapsed on the floor. A few had even popped like balloons and disappeared, the wail too much for their ectoplasmic forms to resist. Danny swayed for an instant then fell to the floor as rings of light sprouted from his body, traveled the length of his form, transforming him from Danny Phantom to Danny Fenton.

The Thunderer pulled himself from off the floor where he had fallen and raced over to the collapsed wall. Throwing aside some timbers he pulled from the rubble one of the Commandants. He raised his baton and brought it down smartly on the creature's head. Dropping the body to the floor he searched for the next and did the same to it, and again to the last of the leaders of the Order.

Through the broken wall could be seen the thousands of the Order standing in crowded rows outside, nervous, uncertain, waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

Ember was kneeling by Danny's side, slapping his face. "Hey, Kid," she was saying "what the hell did you do?"

After a moment Danny woke up and pushed her hand away. As he struggled into a sitting position he asked, "Did we get them?"

"Looks like it," Ember told him.

"Then where's Clockwork?" Danny asked.

Ember was about to ask 'who' when a cloud appeared in the middle of what remained of the Order's Command Center. The cloud resolved into the face of a clock. It's hands raced around the dial until they had returned to their original twelve o'clock position, The face of the clock swung open and Clockwork, currently looking like a one-eyed old man, stepped through. He stepped aside and a dozen members of the Council of Observants marched through. Meanwhile Jazz was landing the Specter Speed which had come in through the missing roof. Danny wondered why she hadn't come through the clock-face portal but then with Clockwork few things made much sense.

"You're late," Danny told the ghost of Time. "I expected you ten seconds ago."

"I expected to find you on your feet by now," Clockwork, regressed to the shape of an infant, snapped back.

Danny watched as the twelve Observants approached their renegade members. Six of them split off and watched as the other six snapped oddly shapes shackles around their hands and feet. A sack was pulled over their single, enormous eye. Danny surmised the Observants were just as susceptible to the their own hypnosis power as anyone else.

Then two to a renegade the six Observants dragged their prisoners back to the clock-face portal, followed by the other Observents, who must have been there to observe the arrest.

As they disappeared into the portal Clockwork turned to Danny. "Through they will not speak it, the Council of Observants are very grateful for your work today, Daniel Fenton. Should you ever need it, you hold a debt of favor from them."

"You mean, you don't know if I'll need it." Danny asked. Since Clockwork claimed to know the future as well as the past and present it seemed strange that he should say 'if' instead of 'when.'

"What I know I'm not allowed to share," he said with a smile then stepped into the clock-face portal. With a nod he stepped back and the portal disappeared.

"What was that all about?" Jazz asked, finally picking her away through the rubble of the destroyed room.

"Who knows. I'm tired. Let's go home."

Before he could take a step through something nudged him in the back. turning he saw Cujo, all eight feet of him, with the knotted up uniform in his mouth. The dog dropped it at Danny's feet and ran his enormous wet tongue over Danny's face. Jazz laughed sympathetically. "At this rate you'll never get rid of him," she said.

"I always wanted a pet."

"You can't keep him at home. How would you explain it to Dad?"

"What, that I have a dog?"

"Who's a ghost!"

"Oh, yeah, that. Well, he'll just have to stay in the ghost zone."

"Do you really think he'll stay?"

"Of course." Danny chucked his dog under the chin and called him a good boy. After a moment he realized he was surrounded by ghosts. His gang, some of the guards they had beat up and some of the guards from outside. "What happens now?" one of the guards from the crowds outside asked.

What indeed. Danny had never thought that far ahead. But his answer was pretty clear. He walked to the front doors and pushed them open. He was surprised the doors opened without the entire wall falling down. He was on a small porch a few steps off the ground. A sea of people stood before him, staring. After a moment they quieted and waiting for Danny to speak.

"The Order is no more. The Commandants, criminals from the society of Observants, have been arrested and taken away for punishment. You are free to pursue a life of your own!"

There was a low murmur following that. While Danny couldn't make out what individuals were saying he got the impression that many were not at all excited about living life on their own. He held up his hands and waited for the crowd to quiet.

"You have fifteen minutes to collect your possession, after which time this camp will be leveled. Anyone remaining here will be leveled as well. That is all."

The crowd stood there for another moment murmuring. When it was obvious that no one was moving, Danny raised his voice and hollered, "Move it, people," and blasted the side of the building. Part of the roof collapsed on the ground. People moved away from the debris at first, then slowly kept going. When it looked like they were all going Danny went inside to talk with his sister. He thanked her for send the members of PET'EM, told his army of malcontents to get going as well, before sending The Thunderer to let the guards they had waylaid earlier loose so they could escape before Danny destroyed the camp.

Jazz flew the members of PET'EM back to their refugee camp in the Speeder. It was a cramped voyage until Danny was able to convince Cujo to become a puppy.

As the Speeder slipped through the Ghost Zone Portal back into their world and slipped into its place on the holding rack Danny fought off yawn after yawn. "Jazz," he said as she was shutting down the engine and instruments on the Speeder, "I'm going to bed and sleep till Sunday."

He almost fell in bed in his cloths but found strength enough to put on his pajamas first. Instantly he was in a deep sleep. Only to awake hours later when something heavy settled on his bed. He sat up wondering what strange bedfellow this would be. He was half afraid that he might find Ember McLain next to him. But it wasn't the ghost rock and roller. At the foot of his bed - laying on the floor actually - with only his head on the bed was Cujo. Danny lay back with a sigh. Come morning he was going to have to take the demon dog back to the Ghost Zone and teach him some more about the meaning of the word 'stay', but for now it just felt kind of nice to have a pet - his own pet - sleep at the foot of his bed.


End file.
